CANCER patients have played a key role in helping a hospital to choose new staff.

Janet Brazier and Bryan Bellars both had bowel cancer operations at Colchester General Hospital. Their views were later sought when the hospital was recruiting new cancer nurses.

The pair suggested questions to the interview panels, observed the interviews and were involved in the final hiring decisions. It was the first time Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust had consulted patients in this way.

It was suggested by Anna Wordley, a nurse consultant in gastro-intestinal cancer, as a way of getting patients more involved.

She said: “Janet and Bryan were particularly interested in their people and communication skills. We gave the interviewees a scenario Janet and Bryan had suggested and asked them how they would respond to it.

“We found their observations during the interviews most helpful.”

Mr Bellars, a 45-year-old businessman, said: “I spoke to the panel before the interviews and it was able to ask candidates questions which were more patient-related than they would otherwise have been.

“After the interviews, the panel discussed the merits of the candidates and asked for my views.”

Mrs Brazier, 64, a retired council worker, said: “I felt I had something to offer, as someone who had been involved in appointing staff when I was working, and also as a patient.

“What I was particularly looking for in the candidates was evidence they had thought about what it felt like to be a patient.”